The Fastest Path to Cash Flow

It’s not sexy, but it’s the truth.

What do you think I am talking about?

Well, if you are anything like my client, you will have no idea either, and even when I said it out loud specifically, he had no idea what I was talking about.

You might be able to empathize. He is in a tough position financially – he needs cash flow now. He is busy, busy, busy – building his marketing funnel as he has been taught to do – spending lots of time tweaking his free giveaway, creating autoresponders, getting graphics just right, writing his blog posts, sending out tweets, and so on and so on.

What struck me was that he wasn’t doing the obvious.

He has a one to one private coaching programme that he is promoting via all his autoresponders, free gifts, webinars, and so on, and when I asked him how many sales conversations he is having, well, that was when the penny dropped.

Not many, he said sheepishly. Well how many have you had in the last week?

None he replied.

So how are you expecting to get clients then?

I guess I think they will land on my sales page and buy it.

Well, it’s a possibility, in theory they will make their way through the sales funnel and maybe a couple will buy, but how is he going to pay the bills in the meantime?
And unfortunately, this is such a common story amongst so many service based solopreneurs today, especially coaches.

It’s sexy, I guess, to think you can set up an automated system and wait for the clicks to happen and the cash to roll in. And I know earning passive income works in the long term, but if you are strapped for cash and/or really want to do the one to one work with clients, this is not the place to be focusing your time and attention.

So the unsexy question I asked was this

What’s your conversion rate?

Blank face!

OK, so how many conversations do you have with prospects before someone says yes?

Now he is getting the picture.

They all say yes when I actually speak to them.

What????

So why aren’t you doing that then?

No answer.

So will you invite 7 people in to have a conversation with you before we speak next?

And he agreed.

Why 7?

Well that’s the number of programmes he needs to sell in order to achieve his income goal for the month and if his conversion rate is 100% (i.e., every person he speaks to says yes) then it’s easy to work out how many conversations he needs to be having.

If he had told me he speaks to 3 people before he hears a yes, well I would have asked him to have 21 conversations.

This is how I got to 21:

1 in 3 people say yes to buying his programme which means his conversion rate is roughly 33%.

He wants to hear 7 yes’s so he has to divide 7 by 33% = 21
That means he has to have 21 conversations to sell 7 programmes.

And why is it important to know how many conversations you need to have?

Well, in my opinion it really helps in getting clear on how and where to spend your time when you need the cash flowing in now. Being busy tweaking your website, writing autoresponders, getting your logo just right for your business card, or spending hours on social media is not going to get you there.

Having conversations is where the cash is. Having conversations with your potential clients is where the beginning of a transformation can happen for them too.

So if you need the cash flowing in right now – ask yourself – how many conversations do I need to have in the next month to make my income goal? Use the formula above to work it out.

And if you don’t know your conversion rate – then start tracking it now.